WP 17 | Should I add a Christian Counseling page to my website with Jessica Tappana
Episode 17 features an interview with Jessica Tappana, an LCSW group practice owner, and founder of Simplified SEO Consulting. The conversation focuses on the importance of SEO for therapists to attract clients, and Jessica's passion for her work in this area. Whitney and Jessica discuss the importance of having a Christian counseling page on a therapy practice's website. The speakers agree that it is a personal decision and that there are benefits to having such a page, especially for practices that are overtly Christian. It is suggested that having a separate Christian counseling page can help reach clients who are specifically looking for a Christian therapist, and from an SEO perspective, it can help a practice rank well in search results for Christian counseling.
The Benefits of Having a Christian Counseling Page
The podcast discusses the benefits of having a separate Christian counseling page on a therapy practice's website, especially for practices that are overtly Christian. The speakers suggest that having such a page can help reach clients who are specifically looking for a Christian therapist, and it can also help a practice rank well in search results for Christian counseling. They also suggest having separate pages for different types of counseling, such as marriage counseling and couples therapy. Also mentioned is the importance of being direct in the language used on the page, and suggest having separate pages for different types of counseling, such as marriage counseling and couples therapy.
Attracting Clients with Different Backgrounds
The speakers discuss the idea that counselors who market themselves as Christian counselors may mistakenly believe they will only attract clients of the same faith. They emphasize the importance of counselors being open about their faith and targeting their ideal client while remaining open to clients of various backgrounds. Tappana explains that clients of minority faiths often struggle to find a counselor who understands their culture and that disclosing her Christian faith to clients has led to productive discussions about their differing beliefs. Owens adds that counselors who specify their religious background do not necessarily limit themselves to seeing only clients of the same faith, and they may attract clients of different Christian denominations or clients who appreciate their understanding of a particular belief system. They highlight the benefits of counselors being open about their faith and targeting their ideal client while remaining open to clients of various backgrounds.
Balancing SEO Strategy and Service Pages
Whitney added a Christian counseling page to her site and found it to be in the top 10 pages for hits at her practice. Jessica has considered adding a faith-based counseling page but is concerned it may turn off certain demographics, such as those with religious trauma or the LGBT community. They discuss the SEO benefits of having such a page and the individual decision each practice must make. Tappana mentions that they have therapists of various faiths, including Christian, Jewish, agnostic, and even atheist, and that they have instead opted for blog posts on the topic rather than a dedicated page.The speakers recommend including a subheading on the Christian counseling page that addresses common concerns such as whether one must be Christian to benefit from counseling. They also suggest having sections on working with teens or couples who have different faith systems.
Final Thoughts
The speakers emphasize the importance of considering the ideal client and being explicit about the type of counseling offered on the page. They highlight that even if two therapists have the same beliefs and interpretation of the Bible, their approaches might still differ, so their websites should reflect that uniqueness. They also stress the significance of understanding what clients are searching for and being clear about it on the website to attract the right people and improve SEO strategy.
Episode Quotes and Tips
"It's all about honing in on that ideal client." - Whitney Owens
"Your website should reflect that diversity of us as Christian therapists." - Whitney Owens
"Being explicit about what you're titling the page is important." - Whitney Owens
"The more clear you are on your website about who you are as a clinician, the more likely you are to get the calls from the right people." - Whitney Owens
"There is a difference between Christian counseling and biblical counseling. So be clear about that on your page as well." - Jessica Tappana
"Even if you and I had the exact same beliefs and the exact same interpretations, um, of the Bible and the exact same, um, Christian traditions still, I think how it would impact us and how it would come out in the chair would be a little bit different." - Jessica Tappana
"It's okay for your website to have that unique feel." - Jessica Tappana
Links and Resources
Connect on Instagram with Jessica: @simplifiedseo
Connect on Facebook with Jessica - Simplified SEO Consulting
Special offer for Simplified SEO Courses: 25% off of any of our online courses on SEO with the code WISEPRACTICE
Connect with the Wise Practice Community Facebook Community Group
Whitney on Instagram
Email your questions to Whitney
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Ep. 17 - Should I add a Christian Counseling page to my website with Jessica Tappana
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[00:02:00]
Whitney Owens: Hello friends and welcome back to the Last Practice Podcast. I am super, super, super happy cuz I get to interview my friend Jessica today. Hi.
Jessica Tappana: Hi. I'm so excited too. Any chance to talk to you is a good, is a good
Whitney Owens: day. That's right. That's right. Well, it's always, I feel the same way about you. Not about me.
You know .
Jessica Tappana: Alright, . You love talking to yourself,
Whitney Owens: huh? That's right. Yeah. So one of my favorite things about having a podcast not only is the cool people you meet, but I actually get to like work with my friends and you can't really have better than that in your life. So let me tell you, in case for some reason you don't know how amazing Jessica Tapin is, let me tell you a little bit about her.
She is an L C S W group practice owner and founder of Simplified SEO Consulting. She understands the complexities of owning a group Practice believes that therapists do their best work when they have a steady stream of ideal clients. After building her own practice using search [00:03:00] engine optimization as her only marketing tool, Jessica began helping other practice owners get their websites ranking on Google and founded simplified as c e.
Her team has helped hundreds of other practice owners reach more of their clients through SEO trainings, online courses, and done for you services. She's passionate about helping therapists grow their practices so that they can do their best clinical work, and she loves to share her knowledge on SEO o with other mental health professionals.
Jessica, thank you again for hanging out with me. Thanks for inviting. Yeah, and I can just attest to the fact that Jessica loves talking seo. Cuz a lot of times we're just chatting and all of a sudden she's like, wait, let's look at your site. Let's talk about seo. And I'm like, Ooh. Yeah. So thank you for all that you offer us.
Jessica Tappana: Yeah, so last week I was at the UM, A B C T conference in New York and I was supposed to completely be wearing my clinical hat. Like I was there as a clinician, as a group practice owner, and I was [00:04:00] just laughing and talking to Danka. Um, about, uh, another member of my team about how somehow SEO ke kept coming up too, because I just love what I do.
And so we'd be talking about really cool clinical concept and I would tell somebody, I'd be like, oh my gosh, you should write a blog post about that. Or people will. Yeah. It's just, I, I, I love it and I love that, um, that we as business owners and especially having two businesses, we get to wear a lot of different hats.
It works well for. , um, for some of us who have varied interests and enjoy some diversity in the work we do. Yes,
Whitney Owens: definitely. Well, and I think SEO is a part of our regular conversation, right? Because this importance of our clients have got to be able to find us. Yeah. You know, and clients are looking for very specific services, specific therapists.
And if you don't do good SEO on your website, You could have the best website out there, but they're not gonna find you. So it doesn't really matter. You could be the best therapist in the country, but if people can't find [00:05:00] you, it doesn't matter. They're gonna find somebody else. So I just think so much of marketing really does go back to seo, and I can definitely attest and have said this many a times that.
Doing SEO o on my own group website was game changer, and especially when Simplified came along, you know, and, and helped in the process. And we did the d I Y courses doubled, even, tripled some of our views on our website. And so it definitely makes a big difference in helping more people.
Jessica Tappana: Yeah, it, it's funny cuz I think, I mean, um, you know this about me, but everybody listening might not that, um, I'm really passionate about, I got in this field to help people.
I care so much about being ethical and doing things right. And so when I started my business, um, I never really actually imagined I'd be that successful in business because, My motivat, my main motivation's totally okay if, if somebody else's motivation is different. But my main motivation has never been to earn a lot of money.
I don't have any problem with earning money, but it wasn't [00:06:00] my primary motivation. And so this idea of marketing just felt so icky, whether it was SEO or other forms of marketing when I started. What I love is that the more I've done this, the more I've realized that good marketing is actually a service that we're offering our clients.
When I have a website with the right content, it helps people get a clear vision of, or clear idea of am I the right therapist to help them? And so the people calling are the people. That are going to be a good fit for me or for my group practice as the case may be. Um, and it, and, uh, it's also very common that we send our clients, our bo actually both my businesses, um, blog posts that we've written and things we did that aren't just for seo, but actually to serve our clients.
And so, you know, for me, being, coming from that perspective of caring so deeply about doing what's right and doing what helps people, I've learned that, um, that focusing on marketing, growing your practice [00:07:00] can absolutely 120% be compatible with also being really passionate about helping and legitimately changing lives.
Whitney Owens: Mm-hmm. . Definitely. And that's totally who you are. Jessica . I see it all over you in our conversations. Um, so anyway, but we could talk all day. So I wanna make sure that we hit the topic at hand because I get lots of questions about this. This is one of the most common questions I get when it comes to Christian therapy.
And website development. So let's chat through, should I have a Counsel Christian Counseling page on my website? I'd love to kind of talk about some of the benefits, and then we could definitely talk about negatives if we see some of those as well.
Jessica Tappana: Absolutely. I absolutely love that we're having this conversation because it's a conversation you and I have had both privately, and I'll say not this publicly, not on uh, YouTube before, or I mean on a podcast before, but we have, like you wrote a blog post for my [00:08:00] practice, that sort of thing.
Uh, or for simplified. Um, this is, this is a common thing and it is a personal decision and I, and I pretend like my counseling practice does not. Um, a Christian counseling page, um, for a couple of reasons that we can't talk about, but I see huge benefit to so many people having it. Um, so yeah, I think it's, I, I think it is a common question and one that each practice owner is gonna need to make the ultimate decision for themselves.
Whitney Owens: Mm-hmm. . Well, what do you think are some of the benefits of somebody having a counseling, Christian counseling page on their
Jessica Tappana: side? So, a couple of things. First of all, if you are an overtly Christian practice, um, so you and I have talked a lot about, you know, there's the overtly Christian practices that are really, um, marketing.
Sometimes they even have. Kind of a statement of faith on their website, um, then you absolutely need one because you're already outing yourself as a Christian therapist. So you might as well be look, be reaching the clients who are specifically looking for a, um, Christian [00:09:00] therapist. On the other hand, um, the same goes for people who maybe not all their clinicians are Christians or they are, but it's not as overt.
Um, I still, if you. To reach the clients who are specifically looking for a Christian counselor. That is an important part of the bill business that you are building. Then quite frankly, I think, yes, you should have a page on your website called Christian Counseling. And I remember when you and I first started, um, talking about this, there was a big push, um, people were going to do faith-based counseling.
Mm-hmm. pages. Mm-hmm. and do you remember all the conversations that, that we've had about that? Um, the bottom line is when I do the keyword research for almost any area, what I find is very few people are searching for faith-based counselors. If they are looking for faith-based counseling, what they're really looking for is usually a therapist that in some way, shape, or form shares their, um, shares their belief system, or at least [00:10:00] their values or some component of it.
Um, and so they're usually typing into Google Christian counsel. . Mm-hmm. as the case may be. And that's not to say it's just that if somebody, you know, um, we actually had an seo, um, Client who, uh, did specifically Catholic counseling, they were Catholic and understood that, you know who I'm talking about one of mm-hmm.
Um, they were just, they're an amazing person. And, um, and so actually their, their content wasn't even Christian counseling so much as Catholic counseling because there that. That subset of our Christian faith has so many steep traditions and complexities to that system that there are going to be people who will really appreciate not just having a Christian counselor, but having someone who understands even Catholicism.
Mm-hmm. and um, and so we've done that. Um, So, so I think that being more explicit and being more [00:11:00] direct, um, while we often as clinicians care so much about inclusivity and wanna say, but I'm not just seeing Christian clients. I, I would see anybody that wants to discuss faith in their practice. Um, yes, being inclusive, I am all for it.
Um, but from an SEO perspective, Usually what people are searching for is kind of the most direct thing. Um, similar to couples therapists, typically we'll see any couples, most couples, therapists, um, not all but most will also see L G B T Q. Couples, couples who are not married and yet, and, and so they wanna say couples counseling.
But yet what we find is in the keyword research, most people are searching for marriage counseling and so, If you are going to be a, you know, if you're gonna specialize in couples, my advice typically is to have a marriage counseling page and then maybe also have a couple's therapy page. Um, similarly, if you want to be really inclusive of all faith, you can have a Christian counseling page and a spiritual, um, [00:12:00] uh, based counseling or, um, uh, a faith-based counseling page that's separate from your Christian counseling page is, is an option.
But yeah, from an SEO perspective, if you wanna rank well, For those people that are searching for specifically for Christian counselors, you're gonna wanna have a Christian counseling page. Yeah,
Whitney Owens: those are all such great points. Um, I wanted to follow up on a few of them. One is just that idea that you don't have to pigeonhole yourself.
Like just because you market to a specific service doesn't mean only those people are gonna come to you. And I do think a lot of, they're kind of, the myth here is a lot of Christian councilors think, well, if I put Christian counseling on my site, I won't get to work with people of other faith backgrounds.
And I don't think that's the case. W would you agree with me on.
Jessica Tappana: I completely agree with you on it because I think that, you know, people, first of all, there are a lot of people of my more minority faiths that in certain areas may have a lot of troubles finding, you know, a Jewish [00:13:00] counselor. I had a client who was, um, who was Muslim, who we have, I, I don't know of any counselors in our area that would share that particular faith.
And that was a discussion that we had early on was. Exposure to, but maybe like, like if we had somebody that had understood all that, had understood, um, their faith and actually the culture associated with, um, their background a little bit better. I may have referred out, but since I didn't, they actually appreciated that, um, that at least I had an understanding of the role that faith can play in their life.
And so we discussed their beliefs extensively in session, um, and. And that was somewhere where I did use self-disclosure, not in detail, but I did say, you know, the first session, I'm gonna be honest with you, I identify as a Christian. Um, and, uh, like I, I often talk about how I quote unquote, come out to my clients in certain ways, if it's, um, relevant.
And so that was somewhere where I felt like it was beneficial to the client to disclose [00:14:00] that. Um, of course with the fact that, you know, with all the caveats of I'm here to help you explore what's important to you, but just it gave me insight. As someone who faith plays a role in my decisions and in how I approach my life, it gave me insight into the types of questions and led me to ask her questions, even though we had very different faiths.
And I think that that's really powerful. And there are clients who, if they can't find a clinician that shares their exact faith, may reach out to you as a Christian counselor for reasons like that.
Whitney Owens: Yeah. Oh, that's such a good point. And you know, talking about the Catholic specific, You said complexities.
I love that you used that word. Cause I think that's so accurate to the belief system that they have. It's so beautiful and unique. Um, and I've definitely done consulting specifically for people multiples who have Catholic practices. It's a very, very common thing, but like the same idea, if a therapist makes it clear that they're Catholic and they want to see Catholic clients, it doesn't mean that they don't see.[00:15:00]
Backgrounds within Christianity, Presbyterians or whatever, they still see those, you know, so they're not pigeon holding themselves into Catholicism, but they're really hitting their ideal client and that s e o people have got to be putting in, I don't know, did you check that? How many people are putting in Catholic counseling?
Therapist or something like that. We
Jessica Tappana: did. And for that specific state. And then we even, because they were offering in-person services and at one time that practice moved. And so we even looked in two different parts of the state. And yes, there were searches for Catholic counseling, but um, and uh, but, but you can also target Christian counseling within a site that also targets Catholic counseling.
And I agree like. As a Christian, I know that somebody that's Catholic is gonna understand the basic tones of my belief system too. Mm-hmm. . But if I was Catholic, I re, like, I dated someone who was Catholic and I had my best friend, you know, in high school was, and, and there are some different, there, there are some unique, um, traditions that said that, um, that the [00:16:00] set them apart a little bit that they were teaching me and that were, you know, very interesting to learn.
But I feel. I feel like if either of those individuals I just named had been searching for, um, a therapist, they may have benefited from someone who understood, um, understood some of those traditions and ways that someone like me, like I would try, but it's, it'd be really cool if they were able to see.
Yeah, someone that shared that.
Whitney Owens: Definitely. Well, believe it or not, I didn't have a Christian counseling page on my site for a while because I was the same thing. I was worried that I would push people away, and then over time I was like, what am I doing? Like I'm missing out on a lot of clients that I specifically could serve.
And um, and I actually also around the same time had a good friend who was looking for a Christian counselor that specialized in alcoholism, and she was googling it and couldn't. And I was like, Ooh. Like you need to be able to find stuff like that. So anyway, so I, uh, went in and [00:17:00] added that page and it, it's like in our top 10 pages for hits at our practice.
Are you looking it up right now? I see. No, I see your face lighting up.
Jessica Tappana: You, you know me way too well. You totally know me. Um, actually no, I was looking, I was curious if I rank for Christian counseling as you're talking about , but I, because I was gonna defend the fact I don't have one or not defend, but, but offer the case for why, for, for what you can do.
Um, cause I feel like, um, if you're okay with it, I'll, do you want me to, just to explain? Yes. So, so in my practice, the, um, more than half of my clinicians are Christian and we all often talk about how our faith does impact how we practice. But I also have multiple clinicians who are Jewish, which is somewhat unusual.
And then I have one clinician who really does a lot of work, um, with, uh, religious trauma. Mm-hmm. . And, um, we also see a significant [00:18:00] number of, um, L G B T folk who have not always felt really accepted by the church. And so we've made the, we go back and forth, I mean, At least once a year, um, about do we add a Christian counseling page?
Do we add a faith-based counseling page? What, how do we handle this? Because from an SEO perspective, obviously I'm the first person who understands if we added a Christian counseling page, even if we added a Jewish counseling page, those would have, um, potentially tremendous SEO benefits. Our concern has always been that if we did so, A couple of those other demographics I mentioned that we see may somebody with religious trauma who could really benefit from our services if it was one of the main, um, dropdown, you know, on that main dropdown menu where in the services we worry about turning 'em off, um, or making them worried about reaching out.
So actually what we've done is a bit more, um, A bit less effective is we have done, um, some blog posts that [00:19:00] talk about Christian counseling. And I'll tell you right now, if you just have blog posts on the topic, you're not going to rank as well. I'm sure enough. Like I'm not ranking like I just checked cause I was like, hi, I wonder if I rank and I mean, I'm looking right now and it's not, we're not one of the top few.
People that ring for that term because just writing a few blog posts, um, is not enough. And so, yeah. So anyways, it, I still don't feel like it's decided because I have thought about doing a faith-based counseling, um, page. My big concern is nobody's searching for faith-based counseling that doesn't have the same advantage.
But on that, I could mention that we specifically have therapists that identify as Christian, um, Jewish and agnostic, agnostic. , um, and even atheists at our, within our practice, um, again, the majority being Christian, but the, the sub, the, the subset there that may be turned off by that being such an obvious page, um, is significant enough to be concerned.
So anyways, that's just, yeah, you, [00:20:00] you were talking about ranking and I'm like, oh. , what would you see in my area? Because I have looked it up before, but it's been a while and I think that, and that's what I mean by like, I think this is such an individual decision. Cause when you and I have talked about it, it seems like a slam dunk.
Of course you need a page on this.
Whitney Owens: Mm-hmm. . Um, yeah, so, well the good thing about our practice and marketing is we can change. You know, you don't wanna change 'em too quick when you're doing SEO work, but like you could always try a Christian counseling page, try it for three, six months, see what happens with your practice.
If it makes a difference, at least for us. And I'm in the south and you know, I thought it was really great that you said, think about where you are in the country and like how it goes across. But like a lot of people are searching for Christian counselors, so. It helps to have it on my website, but always tracking, like I feel like I preach this all the time, tracking your number.
So we, we go in, look in Google Analytics, we're looking at how that page is doing because we wanna make sure that we're putting our money in the right places and [00:21:00] our time and energy. Um, but yeah, you're right. You could have a Jewish counseling page. Um, but the thing I guess that we'll never know, and there's no way to track this, I guess, is how many people maybe look at it and do get turned.
He'll never know that, you know? Yeah. Um, unless you see your numbers dropping. Um, and you know, Jessica's also thinking, I don't know how this would go and you would have to tell me the keywords, but like you could have a page on religious trauma. Yes. That's a definitely a treatment.
Jessica Tappana: We very much so, um, talked about that because, uh, they're such a huge focus of.
In our practice. And, um, and actually now we're, we ha we're about to have a new intern start who also has a significant interest in that area. And so we're gonna have multiple clinicians who really enjoy specializing in it. Um, so yeah, stay tuned sometime in the next six months. I have, I bet that goes there.
But the, the difficult thing, and this is maybe a whole topic [00:22:00] for another, another interview someday, but, um, the, the other thing I always struggle with is for seo. I could make 50, you know. Service pages, I could make one, you know, we have an anxiety treatment page. I could do, um, panic. I could do one for panic disorders, one for, I do have one for ocd, um, general anxiety, phobias, all of this.
And so you can have tons and tons of pages and it's figuring out like, where do I wanna focus, um, focus my SEO juice, so to speak. We really focus on trauma. And so yeah, that, but I wonder if that would balance out if we had like a Christian counseling page and also religious. Trauma page to have that, you know, both front and center where you can see that.
Um, if you do have a Christian counseling page, by the way, I always recommend that on that page you have a subheading that can be easily seen when it's scanned and say, um, that says something like, do I have to be Christian to benefit from counseling at your practice? Um, where you just directly say, Nope, not a [00:23:00] requirement.
I don't know any Christian counselors. I don't know. Maybe you've known some. That like requires somebody to be Christian because questioning faith is so common. Even people that are pretty overtly Christian often have some clients who are not. And um, and so I do recommend if you do have that page, having that, you know, just stating that question.
Um, or another one if you work with teens having a question on there about. How you approach it when parents are Christian and really want them to see a therapist that shares those values, but they, um, but the teen wants nothing to do with, with their parents' faith. Um, again, if you're seeing couples, if your couples therapists have a section on your Christian counseling page about how you approach it, when.
when one member, you know, when the, when the couples have, when the couples have different faith systems because mm-hmm. , um, because that I think is important. I love, I, I think it's very important to have a page that is scannable. So it's somebody looking at your Christian counseling page. When you have those [00:24:00] concerns, when you know that those might stand out, just answer those questions.
Just call it out, but make it in a subheading so that they don't have to read through. every word on your website, every word on that page to get to that question, because you know that those might be key questions that, um, that people looking at your site have.
Whitney Owens: Mm-hmm. . Yeah. So we've brought up a lot of good points about having one or not having one.
Do you have any other things that we missed?
Jessica Tappana: Yeah, I, I think that it really is just kind of thinking about who your ideal client is, how to balance which pages, um, you have on your. Um, thinking through, if you're going to have one being very direct about, um, calling a SPUs eight and saying, and, and, and again, there is a difference between Christian counseling and biblical counseling.
So be clear about that on your page as well. And also be clear about what you're, um, titling the page. Um, but, um, Yeah, I think those are the main points about deciding whether or not to have one and [00:25:00] no, again, there's no right or wrong answer. It's about your SEO strategy and what's important. I think, um, I was working on, um, working on another blog post, cuz I love doing that yesterday and thinking about this, um, this idea with keyword research and deciding what keywords to target of like, Thinking about your ideal client and just knowing, knowing what they're going through, and knowing what they're, they're searching for.
And so, um, you and I might both, might both have a page bot Christian counseling, but. We actually kind of will have slight differences in who our ideal clients are. And so we may target things slightly different, and that's okay. It's, um, it's who are, who are the clients that we're energized by working with and what are they searching for?
And making sure that you're really, I think, pretty explicit about that on your website because if the more clear you are on your website about who you are as a clinician and who you want to see, the more likely you are to get the calls from the right people. [00:26:00] And the great thing is the more likely you are to be rewarded from Google.
Whitney Owens: Mm-hmm. . Yeah, definitely. It's all about honing in on that ideal client and you're so right. There could be one Christian practice down here and another one on the other side of town, but the types, even within Christianity of clients they work with can be very different. Um, and really being able to hone in on that.
So I appreciate you saying that. Yeah,
Jessica Tappana: I think that that's okay. And I don't know. That's one of the things that I appreciate about work about. One of the ways I say you've helped me is I think I had this idea of what a Christian counselor had to be, or how they. We're all different. We, you know, and you're, and, and you really kind of, um, you know, we've had those talks, but I think that your website should reflect that diversity of, um, just like you can have, I used to use the example of, um, I had two D B T clinicians.
I still have. Multiple D B T clinicians and they're both amazing and they're both offering like true D B [00:27:00] T therapy and their personalities are totally different. And so your experience of sitting in the chair with Diana and sitting in the chair with them might be completely different, even though they're both offering the same wonderful evidence-based treatment.
We as clinicians, we, but also us as Christian therapists, our website shouldn't all look the same because we all. Because we all are different. Even if, even if you and I had the exact same beliefs and the exact same interpretations, um, of the Bible and the exact same, um, Christian traditions still, I think how it would impact us and how it would come out in the chair would be.
A little bit different, and it's okay for your website to have that unique feel fill. And so I can sit here and give you all advice all day long about what is effective for sio, but I really like to emphasize that within us talking about what's effective for SIO is you, as you trusting your, you know, you giving prayerful reflection, you giving that thought to, um, who you are and making sure that [00:28:00] that's, that's what's represented on your page ultimately.
Yeah.
Whitney Owens: Oh, all good stuff. So let's talk about a few more really good things, . Okay. So yeah, so I love to offer special deals for the Wise Practice Podcast, and so Simplified SEO Consulting is offering 25% off of their online courses. This is a special deal cuz Simplified does not always offer this much off their courses.
So that just means that if you're listening right now and you've been thinking about SEO O you just need to do it since you can get the deal. So it's for the online courses. And just as a testimonial, like I was saying earlier, my marketing director took that course and doubled the hits on our website.
Um, she's right now in the mastermind course, actually the live one with Anika. And we're also having success with that. Make sure that you, uh, optimize that in getting the 25% off with wise practice as the promo code. And then let's talk about exciting things that you're [00:29:00] doing. Jessica, um, you have a really cool trip coming up and would love to chat a little bit about
Jessica Tappana: that.
Yeah, so I am a really, first of all, I'm a really big believer that, um, the seo, it sounds complicated in some ways. It is. I mean, there are over 200 things. Considering men's deciding, um, how high up to rank what website. Um, but I also think kinda if we survive grad school, we can do it. And so as much as I love our Done For You program and we get incredible, incredible results when our team takes it over and does optimizing for people, my passion from day one has always been teaching people to do their own seo.
And so we are in this, um, Post Covid world, so many of us are seeking connection, and so we're looking this year at opportunities to connect either in person or online with our small group. And, uh, yeah, this is my long way of saying the thing I'm most excited about this year is our 16 day Hawaii cruise that we're doing, where we're gonna [00:30:00] teach, um, online, um, we're gonna teach some digital marketing strategies with, uh, Dan and I really focused on, on page seo, how to optimize your website, changes you can make, they'll truly make a difference and move that needle for your ranking.
We also have Ernesto joining us. Uh, we'll do some other digital marketing strategy, talking about video and, um, social media and all of that sort of stuff. And it's gonna be incredible. We're gonna work for a few hours every day. You're gonna get 10 days of training from Dan and I, and you'll have plenty of time to do it, to check in on emails and do all of your other work.
We specifically chose, um, the Princess Cruise Lane for their good internet and. That because we know that most clinicians can't just take 16 days off and never check in. So you'll be able to do that if you want in that room or just take it off. That's okay too. That is totally okay. Um, and then we'll have five amazing days, um, going island hopping in Hawaii, and one last stop in Mexico.
And I cannot be more [00:31:00] excited. Like I love seo, I love traveling. I'm like, I'm gonna get to like sit next to the pool and look at somebody's website and give them. That, that to me actually sounds so ideal. Like that's, that, that's how I, I want my job to be sitting by a pool, looking out at the ocean, doing work and being, getting things accomplished, just,
Whitney Owens: yeah.
That's perfect, girl. That's awesome. Yeah. And so 10 days of s e o work with you and Danica, that's like. I mean, that's gotta be maybe even more than a Mastermind class for six months. It is.
Jessica Tappana: It is. And so it is, um, so five days and then we have a four day break that will be going to the Hawaiian Islands and letting it sit.
And then we'll come back on and we'll have five more days of training and fun at sea. And again, it's not gonna be the whole day of optimizing, but yeah, no, hours wise, it will be more hours worth of training than even our masterminds get. And. Um, we did a, uh, SEO on a weekend, a three day training, um, pre covid [00:32:00] and had amazing success.
And, um, the, everybody that participated, oh, I'm so proud of the results they got and have maintained. And so we were like, Hmm, but that wasn't enough. The world's SEO world's gotten more competitive and so mm-hmm. , I'm like, I wanna take that success we had there. Translate it to a at in Hawaii and cruising, which I love.
And then, um, but then also have more time to teach a lot more concepts and, um, really like sit with people, help them work. Um, you know me, I love blogging way too much. And so we're also, we joke, we're like, uh, Was it Danica's? She says, we're gonna be giving away blog posts like Oprah. I already have like 20 blog posts written, and so we're gonna be like, oh, you were the first one to show up today for our training.
You get a blog post, pick one out of these pre-written ones and they're gonna be blog post starters. You're gonna take 'em and you can, you know, they'll be like rough drafts that you can massage and make into perfect. But um, I'll be like, okay, hey, [00:33:00] five of training. We're all a little tired. Let's have a drawing and.
The first three people we draw are all getting a new blog post and you'll be able to choose 'em from the file and again, then massage it and make them your own. Taking those first drafts. But yeah, little things like that, like we're having a lot of fun trying to dream up ways to get people maximum return on investment and maximum fun.
Cause that's my ideal combination. .
Whitney Owens: Yes. And family. And you'll be having your kiddos with you too. And so that's something I always appreciate about you is that you have a great ability to make family a part of your work and have it be fun all at the same.
Jessica Tappana: Yeah, most people coming so far are bringing kids and um, and yeah, my kids are very excited actually.
They know that they're, they, they know this is coming up and uh, we have all kinds of, uh, I've jokingly said like, we're gonna take over the kids club cause there's a whole kids program. I'm like, as many people, you know, the fact that most of us so far are bringing kids or not. Most, I'd say, I guess maybe it's half now.
Um, but like half the cabins book so far have kids. I. We're just [00:34:00] taking over Kids club. They're gonna have so much fun together and it'll be.
Whitney Owens: Yeah. Well I love how you spoke to just this idea that we own practices like we've worked really hard and we should go and have fun while we're also working, cuz we're almost always working.
Right. And there's also something to be said when you leave. Quote, leave your physical space, your, your, your place and you get somewhere else. Not only can you get a lot of work done cuz you're focused, but you also have new insight and new ability to think clearly. And just when I think back on times where I've really, um, made some big decisions, which now I'm thinking about how you were there when I made a big decision to become a Christian consultant.
Um, yeah, like it's usually been when I've been. You know, that's when big things happen. And so I think therapists need to really consider that. And as you know, you're listening to this and you're looking at your trips for 2023, like be thinking about a few times a year to get out of your [00:35:00] space, that you can get greater insight.
And as we believe, you know, encounter God in the process.
Jessica Tappana: Yeah, it's funny, I, uh, we're recording this shortly after Thanksgiving and over the break I took like three or four days completely off work, which is not like me at all. Like to totally take it off. Usually I'm sneaking away to check email real quick.
I try not to, but I do. . Um, but I totally took it off. And then my husband, um, you've met him and can probably see it. He was just laughing. Uh, when Sunday night. I'm like staying up late working on, like, creating a whole new website page for my practice because I just have like this moment of inspiration and he's like, Jessica, what are you doing?
I'm like, I'm making that page and I'm so excited and it's just so funny how just taking just a few days off, I've been voluntarily, quote unquote, return to work early by working Sunday night. Because I just had that inspiration and that excitement and thank goodness cuz then coming back to work, the first couple of days there were just people with heaviness going on.
And I had [00:36:00] this energy back that I was able to, um, to face their heaviness with kind of fresh eyes and be a better version of myself. So that time off was
Whitney Owens: critical. Yeah, definitely. Well, great. Well, so if somebody's listening, they wanna get in touch with, you, know about your services, they wanna go to Hawaii, how can they get in touch with you?
Jessica Tappana: Um, our website is simplified seo consulting.com and then from there they can go to the DIY course page if they wanna use that wise practice, um, coupon. They can go to the Hawaii page, they can schedule a free consultation where one of our team will take, you know, some time to look at your website with you and figure out what'll be a good fit.
However they wanna reach out. That's that, that's a great place to start. Awesome.
Whitney Owens: Oh, and just another plug I thought about here at the end is Jessica's gonna be in Savannah for the Wise Practice Summit, which is gonna be October, 2023. So if you are a, uh, platinum sponsor, so I'm really looking forward to having you.[00:37:00]
Jessica Tappana: I'm excited and my kids are coming to that as well. I'm excited to hang out with your kids and, um, yeah, we can't wait. Your first, uh, your first conference you put on was amazing and we know, you know how to like put on a good event that we get a lot out, so I'm, I'm so ready for that. Actually, you and Savannah, I'm wanna do this out for years.
That'll be great. Oh yeah,
Whitney Owens: it will be. We have a lot of really fun events coming up in 2023, so I'm looking forward to. All right. Well girl, thanks again for taking the time to be on the show.
Jessica Tappana: Absolutely. Thanks for having me.
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Show Notes and Audio Production by James Marland
